Isaac’s Aquariums

[Isaac M]

@Streetwise thanks for the heads up! I do not have an auto top-off just yet but I will be adding ro/di water daily. My tank will be covered pretty tightly as well. 

[Streetwise]

You should be able to find a good height to deal with small variations in water depth. The included magnets are very powerful, designed for thick glass. Be careful, and store them with padding if necessary.

[Isaac M]

@Streetwise Yeah I think I will try to keep the filter as low as possible(I think 9” or something like that is the most you can submerge it) just in case to account for evaporation. Yes, I kept the styrofoam blocks from the packaging. I also have Tunze circulation pumps that have similar magnets, they are very heavy duty haha 

[Isaac M]

Also, another thing I wanted to throw out there to the forum that I am not sure has been said before. I took down 2 aquariums in the past week and let me tell you, the Aquarium Co-op coarse filter pad really worked wonders for removing dust algae off of the glass. I just cut the filter pad into a small rectangle to scrub the glass with and it left the glass spotless. 

[Isaac M]

Update: The 40 gallon breeder soft coral reef has begun.

The setup is very simple in my opinion with lighting being 2 AI Prime HD lights. The flow is provided by 2 Tunze Nanostream circulation pumps and Tunze internal filter. Background light is the serene lighting from Current USA.

There are 10 pounds of aquacultured live rock from KP Aquatics mixed in with dry rock. They have been glued together for stability. There is also 40 pounds of fiji pink dry sand. 

The cycle has started with beneficial bacterial from Brightwell Aquatics and some Dr. Tims ammonium chloride. 

This will be a fun journey getting back into reef aquariums! 

[Isaac M]

The 40 Gallon Reef has cleared up nicely. This aquarium will be a fun learning experience for sure, I cannot wait to get some more life in this aquarium haha I used a little ammonium chloride along with the live rock and some bottled bacteria and wow, just a day and a half later and there are already nitrite readings. They are still on the lower end but it is truly amazing how much quicker and easier it is to cycle an aquarium now with these products. Should be ready for fish and possibly a very small clean up crew soon. 

Overall, the fish corner has come together well after these last few weeks of “remodeling” if you will. The aquarium stands have become much more functional and organized. The new 55 gallon is already looking like a stable ecosystem and has begun to add beautiful tannins to the water. The 40 gallon reef took the place of the 29 gallon very well and it is very cool to see how different yet amazing both of the 40 gallons look side by side. The 10 gallon and 40 gallon planted tanks are still as stable as can be. 

[Isaac M]

Quick update on the 40 gallon breeder riparium, I went ahead and trimmed up the crypts at the front of the aquarium. I am not going to lie, I was very nervous to do so as I love the jungle look but I was losing a lot of the visibility to the back of the aquarium. I ended up trimming a ton of leave, maybe somewhere in the 30-50 leaves range. The leaves were very large, the biggest I have ever had from a crypt species. Here is one of them for reference in my hand.

Here is the aquarium after the trim:

I was very pleased with how it turned out. It still kept the jungle look but I can now see the back of the aquarium. Another thing that I saw was a corydora fry that has made it so far in the display tank. I knew I did not grab all the eggs as it would be impossible for me to find them, but I imagined that the adult corys or shrimp would have ate the eggs. Very happy to see this little guy, hopefully he can survive to adulthood! 

[Isaac M]

40 Gallon Reef Update: The aquarium cycled incredibly fast in my opinion, it cycled in about 10 days which is actually longer than what the bottled bacteria claimed at 7 days. I had nitrite within 2 days and quite a bit of nitrate after 5 days. I have quite a bit of diatom algae growth as well which is to be expected. Ammonia and nitrite have now been zero for a few days. As a result, I went to a pet store and bought a locally bred ocellaris clownfish! I also got a little zoa frag just because impulse buy, I think you guys can relate 😂

I also found a cool little hitchhiker, I believe it to be some kind of porcelain crab. I am leaving him in the aquarium as he appears to be a harmless filter feeder. It is really cool to watch him eat, I tried spot feeding him some tiny pieces of mysis shrimp but my turkey baster did not work very well. He was able to eat though. I will be buying a different little feeding system to spot feed him and the corals with.  

[Isaac M]

40 Gallon Reef Update: The clean up crew was added almost a week ago. Different types of snails(Trochus, Dwarf Cerith and Nassarius), Blue-Legged Hermit crabs and an Emerald crab were added. Everyone has been doing great.

I must say, hermit crabs are one of my favorite creatures to have in an aquarium. I have always enjoyed their antics, even way back in my first reef tank. But this Emerald crab is giving them a run for their money, this crab is very active and always getting into trouble! Haha 

They have also done a great job of cleaning the sand bed of the diatom algae. 

@Streetwise the Tunze internal filter has been working great. The diy aquarium lid has kept evaporation at a minimum so water depth has not been an issue. 

[Isaac M]

Hello everyone, its been awhile…

Lots of things going on in life the past month or 2 and I am still incredibly busy but want to provide at least a partial update today with the rest likely coming on Sunday. 

The main focus of this post will be the 10 gallon aquarium. Unfortunately, it developed a leak in one of the bottom seams. The leak was not terrible so I did not have to rush fixing it. Instead, I decided to break down this aquarium and start fresh. 

Here is one last look at the 10 gallon:

It is always sad to see one of your aquariums get torn down. 

Given that this tank is for my girlfriend, we went to a local pet store and she saw an aquarium with dragon stone that she loved. Given that I have dragon stone already sitting in a bucket, I decided to scape the tank with it. Here is what I came up with yesterday:

Egg crate was added to the bottom of the tank to help spread the weight of the dragon stone, mostly done to protect the tank from the large piece I will be adding. Also added a “rice paper” window film as the background. 

I then added the gravel along with the dragon stone. The statue and large dragon stone are the focus of the aquarium so they were placed using the rule of thirds. Smaller stones were added throughout to accent the focus pieces. I also graded the gravel to very low in the front and center to very high at the corners to give more depth. 

A big difference between this aquarium and the last aquarium is that this will not have soil under the gravel. I chose no soil this time just so I can keep experimenting with different type of setups. I also added buce wavy green onto the large stone. 

Then the bamboo was transferred over from the old aquarium. I also added 3 pots of pearlweed in the back along with 3 pots of crypt lucens in various locations. I wanted this tank to be much more clean and open so the bamboo has a chance to shine. The old aquarium just grew vallisneria way too fast for me to keep up with. 

I also noticed that without the tall vallisneria, the light (finnex stingray) was no longer being diffused. The aquarium looked too bright to me so I added some black plastic canvas with double sided tape to diffuse the light. This will help keep the algae down. 

The old aquaclear filter was added to this tank as well with the same old media in it. 

And there you have it, a simple to build 10 gallon planted tank. I added root tabs below the crypts and will be adding easy green as needed for the bamboo and pearlweed. Here is the fresh start to the 10 gallon:

[Patrick_G]

It looks great. I killed three pots of Pearlweed so I’m interested in seeing how it turns out in this tank. 

[Isaac M]

Thanks @Patrick_G! I have grown Pearlweed in a bare tank (floating) before that was from LRB. It was beautiful but unfortunately I ordered plants from another site that was infested with various bugs and dragonfly nymphs so I had to get rid of it all. This Pearlweed and all the plants other than the bamboo are from the Aquarium Co-op. 

[PineSong]

That's a peaceful looking tank--the bamboo forest is super.

[Isaac M]

Thank you @PineSong! It is definitely much more peaceful now that it is not a leaking tank 😂

[Isaac M]

Update on the 40 gallon reef tank, the tank has been progressing well. The algae is beginning to subside which is expected as it is still a new tank that is still maturing. Most of the algae growth has been on the sand bed however, the rocks never got too bad in my opinion. I only do a 4 gallon weekly water change which is probably more than what is needed right now given the low stocking level. It helps me keep focused on the tank however to spend that time with my hands in the tank. 

 

The clownfish is still doing great, he is extremely personable and always greets me when I look into the aquarium. It is extremely difficult to take a picture of him though as he is very active. It is likely that I will be getting him another companion soon in the form of a royal gramma. 

The corals have begun to spread onto the rocks a bit which is encouraging to see. Here are some pictures of some of the corals during the water change today: 

[Isaac M]

The new 10 gallon is doing well. I have moved over the neon tetras and blue dream shrimp. The black canvas being used to dim the light fell off but I attached it again and reinforced it with extra tape so it would not fall off again. 

The 55 gallon is also doing well. There are a lot of tannins in the water from all the manzanita and the lack of water changes. I have only done one water change so far and it really was not needed. The nitrates stay so low due to all the riparian plants and low stocking. The tank looks great in my opinion but unfortunately gets a lot of glare from the reef tank. I am still thinking of what fish to stock this tank with, my thoughts as of now are Rainbow shiners, dwarf chain loaches or a type of corydora, and red lizard whiptail catfish. 

The 40 gallon breeder is still trucking along. The pothos has been growing really fast and it has now spread to the 55 gallon. The baby sterbai corys have been growing larger but I may begin to do water changes on this aquarium to increase the speed at which they grow. The tissue culture anubias is finally starting to grow large which is awesome to see! I hope it eventually grows out of the water. I was also daydreaming earlier about how cool it would be to try to breed splash tetras in this tank (they would likely jump out of the tank but it was only a daydream haha) 

Well that does it for the update on the fish room corner haha

Time to start thinking about the next project, a 100 gallon ricefish pond…

[Isaac M]

Hi everyone, partial update today, lets start with the 40 gallon breeder:

Ok so I will admit it, the aquariums are not in the best shape, the water line is a little low and all that but lets just keep it real for this post haha 

The fun update this time are for the new tank inhabitants, lets start with the baby Sterbai corys. The breeder box is no longer in the aquarium as I decided it was time to release them into the main aquarium. They have been in the main aquarium for over a week now and have been doing great. They are active and eating. Here is a picture of 2 of them eating after the automatic feeder fed them: 

The other addition to this aquarium are the pygmy corydoras! A school of 20 to be exact. They are very active and I enjoy watching them school around. It adds so much more movement to an aquarium that only had shrimp swimming in the upper half of the aquarium. The pygmy corys can be found swimming back and forth above the crypts and in the roots of the pothos all day. I was able to capture this footage early one morning, it is not the best footage but I loved the video nonetheless:

And here is one final picture of everyone during their first feeding of the day:

[Isaac M]

Now we can update the 55 gallon:

Again, not in the best shape but we have some new additions to this one as well. Quite a few actually…

I have added a school of 23 Rainbow Shiners. I have been feeding them heavy to fatten them up and they have definitely grown in the last few weeks. I cannot wait for them to color up! I took an odd angle picture to eliminate the glare but here they are: 

I have also added 3 Red Lizard Whiptail Catfish. They are a very interesting looking fish. They are a fun addition as it is almost like a game to look for them in all the manzanita branches. Here is a picture of one of them:

I also added in corydoras. I have added 6 Orange Venezuelan corydoras and 4 Adolfoi corydoras (ordered 6 but 2 did not handle the shipping very well). The Adolfoi are a little small as well but I am feeding them heavy to bulk them up some. Here are 2 of them:

The Orange Venezuelan corys are very active and look really good in the tank. They look amazing swimming in and out of the shadows. Just look at how cool this little guy looks resting on the bolbitis:

That is all I have for today. I will update the rest of my aquariums soon. Thank you to anyone that read through my posts! 

[Guppysnail]

On 9/8/2021 at 9:47 PM, Isaac M said:

Hi everyone, partial update today, lets start with the 40 gallon breeder:

Ok so I will admit it, the aquariums are not in the best shape, the water line is a little low and all that but lets just keep it real for this post haha 

The fun update this time are for the new tank inhabitants, lets start with the baby Sterbai corys. The breeder box is no longer in the aquarium as I decided it was time to release them into the main aquarium. They have been in the main aquarium for over a week now and have been doing great. They are active and eating. Here is a picture of 2 of them eating after the automatic feeder fed them: 

The other addition to this aquarium are the pygmy corydoras! A school of 20 to be exact. They are very active and I enjoy watching them school around. It adds so much more movement to an aquarium that only had shrimp swimming in the upper half of the aquarium. The pygmy corys can be found swimming back and forth above the crypts and in the roots of the pothos all day. I was able to capture this footage early one morning, it is not the best footage but I loved the video nonetheless:

And here is one final picture of everyone during their first feeding of the day:

I love your Pygmy. I just started a tank with a school of 22 they are rascals and so fun but run if they see my camera 😟

[Isaac M]

@Guppysnail thank you! They are awesome little fish, I usually just try to approach them slowly and have the lights turned off in the room to minimize casting any shadows on them. This normally reduces any startling with the camera. Fish can be very camera shy though haha 

[Patrick_G]

On 9/8/2021 at 6:47 PM, Isaac M said:

And here is one final picture of everyone during their first feeding of the day:

That’s a great pic! 

[Isaac M]

@Patrick_G thank you! This is another way to get a great picture of your fish @Guppysnail, feed them and they will come out of hiding haha 

[Guppysnail]

On 9/8/2021 at 10:12 PM, Isaac M said:

@Patrick_G thank you! This is another way to get a great picture of your fish @Guppysnail, feed them and they will come out of hiding haha 

They never hide until they see the big pink iPhone 🤣

[Isaac M]

@Guppysnail I have an iphone that is black with a red rim around the case so the red probably does not help me either 😂 that is an interesting thought though, I wonder if a darker less reflective colored phone scares fish off less? 😂

[Guppysnail]

On 9/8/2021 at 10:16 PM, Isaac M said:

@Guppysnail I have an iphone that is black with a red rim around the case so the red probably does not help me either 😂 that is an interesting thought though, I wonder if a darker less reflective colored phone scares fish off less? 😂